Australian Researchers Develop First Blood Test for Melanoma

WEDNESDAY, July 18, 2018 (HealthDay News) — The first blood test to detect melanoma skin cancer in its early stages has been created, according to a study published in the July 17 issue of Oncotarget.

Pauline Zaenke, of Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, and colleagues assessed the blood test in a trial with 245 people, half of whom had melanoma.

The researchers identified a combination of 10 autoantibody biomarkers that, as a panel, displayed a sensitivity, specificity, and an area under the curve of 79 percent, 84 percent, and 0.828, respectively, for primary melanoma detection.

“This melanoma autoantibody signature may prove valuable for the development of a diagnostic blood test for routine population screening that, when used in conjunction with current melanoma diagnostic techniques, could improve the early diagnosis of this malignancy and ultimately decrease the mortality rate of patient,” the authors write.